The former Syracuse Developmental Center is a unique and promising property, effectively equipped to serve multiple purposes all on one sprawling campus. I was proud to lead my development team of partners and investors in purchasing this property in May 2008 through our corporation, Syracuse Resort Development Inc.

At the time, we saw remarkable potential in the redevelopment of the site for a variety of uses that would simultaneously honor its purposeful past while transforming the property into a bold and dynamic series of forward-thinking projects worthy of Syracuse, the “Emerald City.”

While the purchase price of $2.2 million was the highest of several bids (more than double the lowest bid) in a very competitive acquisition process, Syracuse Commissioner of Assessment John Gamage curiously decided to place a total assessment value of $17,846,000 on the two-parcel property. He decided that the parcel with the building should be assessed at $16,942,000, and the parcel with the vacant land at $904,000.

Later in 2008, we had a conference call with Gamage, and he said that he would be willing to lower the assessment of the former SDC by $10,802,000 at the parcel with the building, for a new total assessed value of $6,140,000.

Including the other parcel, this would have brought the new total assessment of the property to a total of $7,044,000. Gamage’s “offer” was contingent upon my signing a waiver of SRDI’s rights to challenge this new assessed value for a period of three years.

Obviously, I declined to agree to an assessed value that was still well over triple the value of the property’s purchase price itself. Interestingly, the Department of Assessment went ahead and lowered the assessment for the SDC anyway, for a new total property assessment value of $7,044,000 for 2009 and 2010 — while inexplicably leaving the 2008 value at $17,846,000!

For months, we have all heard about the “back taxes” that were “never paid” by the “current owners.” However, what no one mentioned is that those taxes (now totaling $1,252,545.39) are largely based upon what we consider to be an egregious and erroneous 2008 assessment. We had always been told that the “generous offer” to retroactively lower the 2008 assessment was still an option (provided we drop our tax assessment challenges for 2009 and 2010).

In summer 2009, SRDI entered into a contract with an out-of-state developer that sought to purchase the SDC. The same developer, under a different — and non-existent — entity, entered into a 15-year lease agreement with the Syracuse City School District to lease “swing space” to 1,500 students and staff from schools that would undergo renovations.

We were notified that we were required to resolve our tax assessment situation and discontinue our tax challenges against the city in order for the SCSD lease to be approved and, consequently, for the conditions of our sale to be satisfied.

We tried contacting Gamage several times, but to no avail. We wished to discuss the resolution offer that he had previously made. Soon thereafter, City Corporation Counsel Juanita Perez Williams abruptly decided that the deal was suddenly “off the table” and that she would be advising Gamage of the same. Simply put, Perez Williams interfered in our ongoing assessment negotiation. Was this an effort to force us to pay an enormous tax bill based upon an erroneous tax assessment?

If Perez Williams had been more diligent elsewhere, she would have noticed that the swing space lease was with a non-existent entity! That entity, a partnership between companies in Texas and Florida, was Health Consortium-USA, Ltd., Co. LLC — which does not exist anywhere in the country. Nevertheless, that did not stop the geniuses in government from approving a $28.2 million lease with a bogus entity!

It was the responsibility of the corporation counsel to undertake thorough due diligence on the landlord of the lease deal. The total failure to confirm their proof of funds and whether or not they even legally existed has gravely jeopardized our financial situation and wasted our time for months.
There is still an opportunity to prepare swing space by redeveloping the SDC within a few months’ time. Regrettably, City Hall seems uninterested in returning phone calls of business owners who have been stymied from business development by unfair assessment practices. As long as the Department of Assessment continues to operate in this predatory manner, Syracuse will continue this downward economic spiral unabated while abandoning its promise of a better tomorrow.